Ghoulish Trio

Image

Encounter Conditions

Only if you broke through the wall of skulls

Initial Text

You find a detailed drawing of the hero facing down three loping creatures that have a hint of degenerate humanity to them. The artist manages to evoke revulsion in every crease of their loose skin and globule of bloody gristle hanging from their mouths.

It's hard to tell if the faceless hero is in a panic, but that seems like a reasonable enough response.

Summary of Choices

1. See if he fights them - Lose all HP, gain 10 energy of Broken Bone, or gain grisly crown of teeth, 5 XP (if you have a battered pistol from the Gravestone choice encounter)
2. Look for him running - Gain 3 XP in Reflexes
3. Search for sketches following them - Gain 2 XP in Perception and 2 XP in Will
4. Find out if he feeds them - Lose all HP, gain 10 energy of Broken Bone, or learn ghoul language (if you have a collection of limbs from the Innocent Pile of Crates choice encounter)

Choice Text and Results

See if he fights them

You quickly find an image of the hero rushing towards the creatures. They leap onto him as one, their fangs tearing giant hunks of flesh from the bone.

You feel a little woozy examining the next picture, showing them cracking his bones open to feast on delicious marrow. It takes until you stand up to realize how much pain you're actually in.

You've gained 10 energy of Broken Bone.

Lose all hit points.

(or, if you have a battered pistol from the Gravestone choice encounter)

You find a drawing of them rushing him, only to be driven back again and again by shots from his ancient pistol. Eventually the last flees to avoid the fate of its dismembered colleagues.

The next page shows the hero modeling a grisly new sinew-and-tooth crown.

You've earned 1 XP in Perception, 2 XP in Strength, 2 XP in Will

Or, I am getting??:
You've earned 2 XP in Perception, 3 XP in Will

And either way:
(Adds a grisly crown of teeth to the list of items in your quest log**)

Look for him running

You rapidly flip through the pages, eventually finding a pair of sketches near the front of the book. One shows the hero turning away from the creatures, while the other shows him hiding among a pile of bones and refuse while they stalk by.

You feel strangely exhausted, but relieved, by the second image.

You've earned 3 XP in Reflexes

Search for sketches following them

Page after page of sketches follow in their tracks, almost like a nature documentary gone horribly wrong. You see them stalking prey, hounding their prey mercilessly, and reducing their prey into piles of meat and bones for consumption.

A few snippets of them herding their prey into calderas then fishing out the crisped corpses are kind of interesting. You're almost surprised there aren't any fights for dominance or mating rituals depicted.

You've earned 2 XP in Perception

You've earned 2 XP in Will

Find out if he feeds them

You find a few pictures of the hero feeding the ghouls, but probably not in the way he'd prefer. Great chunks are taken out of his flesh by their teeth before they crack open his bones and lick out their marrow with their pointed tongues.

Looking at those horrible images could explain why you're exhausted… but the ache in your bones… you're not so sure.

You've gained 10 energy of Broken Bone

Lose all hit points

(or, if you've taken a collection of limbs from the Innocent Pile of Crates choice encounter)

You flip deeper into the book to find an odd scene, the hero handing copies of his own limbs to the creatures. Small sketches on the next few pages detail them stripping the flesh from the bones and cracking them open with their massive teeth to lick out the marrow within.

Flipping one last page, you see a spread of sloppy glyphs. Actually, on closer inspection, they look a lot like normal letters.

The meanings are different, though. The one that looks like an 'A' is the word for 'to hunt.' Although… you're not entirely sure how you just figured that out. There's no translation key or even context, just a wide set of words.